Short Take: Michigan schools, government suffer Net slowdown

Michigan Internet service provider Merit Network lost half its access to the Internet Monday when a routing problem disabled one of its two T3 connections. The nonprofit ISP, which serves universities, research institutions, hospitals, and some businesses throughout the state, initially suspected a possible hacker attack. But Cisco Systems, which made Merit's routers, has since concluded that memory fragmentation on aging equipment caused the slowdown.

Michigan Internet service provider Merit Network lost half its access to the Internet Monday when a routing problem disabled one of its two T3 connections. The nonprofit ISP, which serves universities, research institutions, hospitals, and some businesses throughout the state, initially suspected a possible hacker attack. But Cisco Systems, which made Merit's routers, has since concluded that memory fragmentation on aging equipment caused the slowdown.